excellence of Christian character, and the victorious power of Christian hope. The former bears the image of God; the latter is as imperishable as his throne. We fasten our eyes with more real respect and more heart-felt approbation upon the moral majesty displayed in walking as Christ also walked, than upon all the pomps of the monarch or decorations of the military hero. More touching to the sense and more grateful to high heaven is the soft melancholy with which we look after our departed friend, and the tear which embalms her memory, than the thundering plaudits which rend the air with the name of a conqueror. She has obtained a triumph over that foe who shall break the arm of valor, and strike off the crown of kings. 'The fashion of this world passeth away.' Old Time approaches towards his last hour. The proudest memorials of human grandeur shall be food for the conflagration to be kindled when 'the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. Then shall he be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.'
"There are those perhaps, in the present assembly, who repute godliness fanaticism, and the sobriety of Christian peace the gloom of a joyless spirit; but who cannot forbear sighing out, with the prophet of mammon, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' If they proceed no further, their wish will not be granted. None shall die the death of the righteous, unless by a rare dispensation of mercy, who do not live his life. They only are fit to be with God who love God and keep his commandments. In that day of transport and of terror which we shall all witness, how many of the thoughtless
fair who now 'sport themselves with their own deceivings,' would give all the treasures of the east and thrones of the west to sit with Isabella Graham on the right hand of Jesus Christ. If ye be wise betimes, ye may. Now is the accepted time; to-day is the day of salvation. The gospel of the Son of God offers you at this very moment, the forgiveness of your sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. The blessing comes to you as a free gift: accept it, and live; accept it, and be safe; accept it, and put away the shudderings of guilt and the fear of death. Then shall you too, like our friend, go in due season to be with Christ. Your happy spirit shall rejoin hers in the mansions of the saved. God shall bring you in soul and body with her when he makes up his jewels. Then shall he gather his elect from the four winds of heaven, shall perfect that which concerneth them, and make them fully and for ever blessed. Be our place among them in that day.'
EXTRACT FROM MRS. GRAHAM'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.
"My children and my grandchildren I leave to my covenant God — the God who hath fed me all my life with the bread that perisheth, and the bread that never perisheth; who has been a Father to my fatherless children, and a Husband to their widowed mother thus far. And now, receiving my Redeemer's testimony, John 3:33, I set to my seal that God is true; and believing the record in John's epistle, that God hath given to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot unto God, and being consecrated a
priest for ever, hath with his own blood, entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for me. I also believe that he will perfect what concerns me, support and carry me safely through death, and present me to his Father, complete in his own righteousness, without spot or wrinkle. Into the hands of this redeeming God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I commit my redeemed spirit."
Mrs. Graham's epitaph on a tablet in the Pearl-street church, is associated with that of her son-in-law Mr. Bethune, to whom before his connection with the family she was a spiritual mother; who prepared her memoir, wrote and printed tracts for her widows, imported Bibles for her to distribute, replenished her charity purse when exhausted; with whom she took sweet counsel and walked to the house of God in company; and for whom she was pleased to leave the written and honorable testimony: "He stands in my mind, in temper, conduct, and conversation, the nearest to the gospel standard of any man or woman I ever knew as intimately. Devoted to his God, to his church, to his family, to all to whom he may have opportunity of doing good, duty is his governing principle; cast upon his care, under God he nourishes me with kindness," etc. They have entered into rest. One sepulchre contains their sleeping dust, and one monument bears the following tribute to their memory:
Sacred to the Memory
OF
DIVIE BETHUNE,
MERCHANT OF THIS CITY,
WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 18, 1824, AGED 53 YEARS;
AND OF
ISABELLA GRAHAM,
HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW,
WHO DIED JULY 27, 1814, AGED 72 YEARS.
THEY WERE BOTH NATIVES OF SCOTLAND.
THIS MONUMENT
IS REARED BY HIS BEREAVED WIDOW AND HER ORPHAN DAUGHTER,
AS A TESTIMONIAL OF TWO SERVANTS OF JESUS CHRIST:
THE ONE A RULING ELDER IN HIS CHURCH, THE OTHER A MOTHER IN ISRAEL;
WHO, LIKE ENOCH, WALKED WITH GOD,
LIKE ABRAHAM, OBTAINED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH,
AND, LIKE PAUL, FINISHED THEIR COURSE WITH JOY.
THEY WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES,
AND THEY REST HERE TOGETHER IN THEIR GRAVES.
"THE BLESSING OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH CAME UPON THEM; AND THEY CAUSED THE WIDOW'S HEART TO SING FOR JOY." JOB 29:13.
"OH HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID UP FOR THEM THAT FEAR THEE; WHICH THOU HAST WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!" PSA. 31:19.